One of the most
undeniable trends as this year's CES expo was 4K TVs. There were
giant 4K sets, curved 4K sets, and bendable 4K sets. But all that 4K
action might leave you wondering: what does 4K mean? And what effect
does the onslaught of 4K have on the future of the HDTV I just
bought?

Ultra high definition (UHD)
is a standard that exceeds high definition (HD). The Consumer
Electronics Association defines UHD displays as having a 16:9 ratio (the same as HD) and a
minimum
pixel count of 3840 by 2160. HD maxes out at 1080p, which is
1920 by 1080 pixels.

Right now, the
terms 4K and Ultra HD are essentially used interchangeably. 4K
is one type of UHD defined by a 2160p resolution (the minimum
threshold for
UHD) , and it's quickly
becoming the first widespread UHD standard. Another UHD
standard—8K UHD, which has a 4320p resolution (7680 by 4320
pixels)—
is out there, but no one uses it
yet. It's the same as how both 720p and 1080p formats are
considered "high definition" even though one has a much higher
resolution than the other (marketing folks
sometimes call 1080p "full HD").

Progressive scan. In most
everyday uses, “p” can just be thought of as referring to the
number of horizontal lines of pixels a display has. So a 2160p
display
(4K) has twice as many horizontal lines
as a 1080p display (HD). It happens to have twice as many
vertical lines, too (3840 vs. 1920), for a total of 4 times as
many pixels. 4K images are composed of nearly
8.3 million pixels. Compare that to the just over 2 million
found in a 1080p image, the full HD resolution
produced by Blu-rays.

4K images are composed of
nearly 8.3 million pixels. Compare that to the just over 2
million
found in a 1080p image, the
full HD resolution produced by Blu-Rays. It's nine times as many
pixels as a 720p HD broadcast.
That's like the difference between an 8-megapixel camera and
a 2-megapixel camera.

It depends. The extra pixels
make 4K images look great in the store when you're standing
close to the TV. But if you expect to sit on your couch 8 feet
away
from your TV, you'll need a 55-inch TV or
bigger to see the improvement. And the farther from the TV you
sit, the bigger the TV you need in order for 4K to
make a
difference. The smaller your TV and the
farther you sit from it, the less distinguishable individual
pixels become. So 4K mostly benefits viewers who
sit close to
large TVs. But the Ultra HD standard is about more
than just a lot of pixels. The video specs also call for a
larger color space, which should make
everything look better
even if you can't see all of the pixels.

Like all
other original Netflix programs in 2014, House of Cards will be
shot and offered in
4K.Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube have
all announced that they will produce more 4K
content
beginning this year.

All of your existing HD
content, including Blu-rays, will work on an Ultra HD TV.
They'll be
scaled up to fill the screen, though, so they won't
look as good as true 4K content. The current
generation
of Blu-ray discs supports resolutions up to 1080p. But the Blu-ray
Disc Association
has expressed an interest in developing 4K-compatable Blu-rays down the
road. New video
compression formats will allow broadcasters and
Web services to stream bulky 4K video files
more easily. The International
Telecommunications Union recently introduced the H.265 (or
HEVC—High
Efficiency Video Codec) standard as a successor to the H.264
standard widely
used to deliver video via
Broadcast, Blu-ray, and Web. H.265 promises to deliver quality
comparable to that of H.264, despite using half the bandwidth. In addition, Google has
developed its own competing bandwidth-lite format, VP9, which
the company will use to
stream 4K videos on YouTube. It, too,
promises equivalent quality at half the
bandwidth of
H.264.

Eventually, yes. Most TV
peripherals use HDMI, but only the two most recent version of
HDMI
(1.4 and 2.0) support 4K resolution. And only HDMI 2.0 can handle a 4K signal at 60 frames per
second (All Sceptre 4K U series TVs support HDMI 2.0). HDMI 1.4
is limited to handling a 4K
signal at 30 frames per second.

More frames per
second means less blur. What limited 4K content there is today
tends to be
available only at 30 FPS, but this will surely
change down the line as more content becomes
available. If you're going to make an investment in a 4K TV, you
might as well go all the way.
HDMI 2.0 was unveiled in September
and is still being introduced to the
market (not even all
4K TVs have them standard yet). But because HDMI 2.0 is backward-compatible with all
previous generations, a
new UHD TV with HDMI 2.0 will
still be able to "talk" to your old tech.
It even uses
compatible cables.

Well, the new
4K sets are very expensive right now, but they are rapidly
becoming more affordable. We @ Sceptre, for example, recently
unveiled a less
than $500 50 inch 4K
TV. Remember, HDTVs were prohibitively expensive not so long
ago, but their prices have come down. At this point, it's hard
to find a
new TV that isn't HD.

If you
recently purchased a new HDTV, don't worry. It's a great
living-room addition with lots of available content! Everyone
will be talking about 4K, but
you can sit tight while
the sets become cheaper, quality improves, and content becomes
more readily available. That HDTV you just bought has several
years of life left in it before you'll want
to move on.

Most
HDTVs today use the HDMI 1.4 standard to process video and audio
signals between a source, such as a Blu-ray player, and your TV.
HDMI 1.4
doesn't support
the security requirements that the studios require for the
delivery of 4K. On top of this, since 4K Ultra HD TVs have four
times as many
pixels as Full HD 1080p
TVs, additional capacity is required to process any video and
audio signals between the source and TV. As a result, the newest
HDMI 2.0 standard was
recently introduced into the market. HDMI 2.0 allows 4K Ultra HD
content to be processed at up to 60 frames per second, instead
of a maximum of 30 frames per second
for HDMI 1.4. Additionally, a new technical standard was
simultaneously initiated for digital copyright protection
that
might be used to encode future 4K Ultra HD
video streams, discs, or broadcasts. HDCP, or High-Bandwidth
Digital Content Protection, was developed
to prevent copying
digital audio and video content as it travels
across connections. The newest 4K Ultra HD TV models will be
compatible with HDMI 2.0
and HDCP 2.2, though you may still see
older models offering HDMI
1.4 or an earlier version of HDCP copy protection. With that
said, it would be wise to
start out with a TV that has the
latest technology in order to "future proof" your TV
for future technology. “Future proofing” and these new
technologies
are all reasons why 4K Ultra HD is a good choice
today. Manufacturers are making the shift
to this new resolution standard, and it seems this new
standard
is here to stay. There is something to be said about the peace
of mind that comes with owning a TV that
will not only functionally last the test of
time, but remain
technologically relevant going forward.